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A very enjoyable episode! As regards the chlorine gas and ammonia bit, in WW1 when soldiers were first exposed to chlorine, they figured out that cotton pads soaked in urine worked better for filtering than those soaked in water. Theory went that the ammonia in urine breaks down the gas. Modern tests show that combining ammonia/urine and chlorine can actually produce some toxic byproducts, but perhaps not as immediately dangerous as breathing the chlorine. But for Lovecraft’s time, it was still perfectly sound scientific knowledge. This fact brought to you by someone who knows an unseemly amount about World War I for a modern American girl. 😉

Good luck on the baby, Mr. Lackey!

Grandpa Theobald on

November 16, 2011 at 8:47 PM

OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!! Three of My fave Collaberations IN A ROW!!
First Through the Gates, now Winged Death, and next Aeons!! MY LIFE IS COMPLETE!!

Leo on

November 16, 2011 at 9:32 PM

Curiously enough, the linked-to text for Winged Death says HPL and Hazel Heald.

Maybe Lovecraft/Heald and the other author who submitted a story about a writing bug had both been reading Archy and Mehitabel, which, though it had been appearing as a sporadic column since 1916, was first collected and published in book form in 1927, not too long before this.

As an addendum, I would have said that on the forums except that it has repeatedly refused to let me register – each time I try, everything appears OK, until it gets to the point where I am supposed to have been sent an email with a confirmation code. This email never shows up, even when I use the thing to resend it to a different email address. Yes, I have checked the spam folder. Does anyone know anything about this?

To expand on Kim’s remarks: during some of the early chlorine gas attacks by the Germans in WWI, a French commander hit upon the idea of urine-soaked pads to counteract the poison. Now imagine what an amazingly charismatic leader he must have been: “Ignore the clouds of poison blowing towards us, men! I want you all to pee on your handkerchiefs now, and then put them over your faces!”

Did I hear the sneeze of a baby or am I going mad, youre sound effects are getting weirder.

Ariel Segal on

November 18, 2011 at 8:49 AM

Great episode this week. BTW the 1st Lovecraft book I bought was the Horror in the Museum and other Revisions, & Winged Death was 1 of the 1st stories in it. An intro to Lovecraft, so to speak (though I have a distinct recollection of reading “The Outsider” in an anthology when I was a kid-was unlike anything else I had ever read.)

I bought the book in an eclectic bookshop in an obscure corner of …Jerusalem. Did not see Necronomicon there. 🙂

“Sefer V’sefel’s multiple levels overflow with new and secondhand books, chiefly in English, ranging from Judaica to trashy sci-fi to everything in between. The outdoor racks are filled with dirt-cheap books and magazines for the book fanatic on a budget.”
Your podcast is one of the highlights of my week. Good luck w/ baby.
Sincerely, Ariel Segal

I, like Chris above, have been unable to register on the forum. I simply took it personally and felt that I had been black-balled. Somewhat along the lines of “I refuse to be a member of any club that would allow me as a member.”

What recourse have I? Strychnine?

Tiago Braga on

February 2, 2012 at 9:08 PM

Winged Death is one of my favorites of Lovecraft’s. Another one, (that is also a revision/colaboration) is In the Walls of Eryx, which I believe is the only real sci-fi story ever written by Lovecraft.

About the “ceiling out of the reach of human hands”, I think is just literary effect, just a fancy, dramatic way of saying that the ceiling was too high (like a vaulted ceiling). This saves a lot of unnecessary explanation, so the reader can make it out by him/herself.

And very nice podcast, guys! It’s the only kind of review that I’ve found online about this short story. The next one, is the one I’m writing! 🙂

Cheers!

BreeLandwalker on

May 8, 2014 at 9:29 AM

All I can think of when I hear this maniacal revenge plan is Yzma…

“Oh I know…I’ll engineer a fly. A harmless little fly. Then I’ll put that fly in a box. Then I’ll put that box inside of another box, and then I’ll mail that box to Henry Moore. And when it arrives *AHAHAHA!* HE’LL DIE OF ZOMBIE SICKNESS! It’s brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, I tell you! Genius, I say! Or, to save money on postage, I could just poison him with this tainted crocodile meat…”